Promethium - Origins (2013)

Genre - Heavy Metal
Label - Sky Rockets Records

Track listing:

01 - Won't Break Me
02 - Gunslinger
03 - The Art Of Hurting,
04 - Counterfeit
05 - Rain
06 - The Hunted
07 - Plagued By Evil
08 - Revolver
09 - Believer
10 - Origins

October 7th sees the release of Lancaster based metal bands sophmore album, Origins, and its an album that is well worth checking out!
Filled to the brim with killer riffs, a real driving rhythmn section, well constructed and STRONG songs and some great vocal deliveries from lead vocalist Gary McGahon, who manages to manoeuvre his voice from classic hard rock styling to metalcore screaming as the songs require.
What is really notable here is just how well the band manage to restrain themselves, and succeed in not over doing the solos and other little indulgences. In fact Dan Lovett-Horn's and Rossi's guitar work is damn near perfect, the riffs on show here are truly sublime.
Standout tracks for me have to include album opener, Won't Break Me, (which really sets the scene for what is to follow with the rest of the album,) The Art Of Hurting, Rain (The albums ballad, well almost!), Plagued By Evil and the albums surprise closing title track, Origins, a short instrumental track that opens withs a thunderstorm which leads into a beautiful acoustic guitar, a subtle and touching way to close out a very strong album indeed.
If you have never heard of Promethium then shame on you as they are a very strong and promising band that have now delivered two great albums, and whats more |I have this gut feeling that they are still capable of producing a hell of a lot more!

Origins builds on the solid groundwork set down with 2011's debut Welcome To The Institution, and showcases just how the band are developing further as both performers and songwriters ta boot.

Rating - 9/10

Black Spiders - This Savage Land (2013)

Genre - Hard Rock / Classic Rock
Label - Dark Riders / Pledge Music

Track listing:

01 - Knock You Out
02 - Stick It To The Man
03 - Balls
04 - Young Tongues
05 - Put Love In Its Place
06 - Raised By Wolves
07 - Trouble
08 - Teenage Knife Gang
09 - Creatures
10 - Sleepy Demon

11 - Cockfight (Pledge Music Exclusive)
12 - Kill Your Friends (Pledge Music Exclusive)
13 - Trust In Me (ITunes / Pledge Music Exclusive)

14 - Christmas Jumpers (Outtake - Pledge Music Exclusive)

The mighty Black Spiders return with their sophmore album and follow up to 2011's debut Sons Of The North in the form of This Savage Land. Recorded via the Pledge Music method enabling the band to to exercise complete control over the end product.

The album opens with the fist pumping Knock You Out, and moves quickly into the attitude drenched Stick It To The Man. Balls slows things down a little before Young Tongues and Put Love In Its Place resume proceedings. Raised By Wolves follows and to be honest in my opinion proved to be the albums most disappointing track. Trouble, Teenage Knife Gang and Creatures quickly follow and restore the albums quality levels to max. The album proper closes with Sleepy Demon, a real plodder of a track, in the traditional Prog Rock mould. A Great song.

Now we have the exclusives. Cockfight, Kill Your Friends and Trust In Me really should have made the album proper, they are all three every bit as good as anything else on there and in the case of Raised By Wolves far superior! To be honest, my favourite tracks are, Knock You Out, Balls, Stick It To The Man, Cockfight, Trust In Me, Kill Your Friends and Sleepy Demon!

Christmas Jumpers is just the guys fooling around and I'm guessing not a genuine outtake but rather enjoyable all the same.

On a Whole This Savage Land is a great album and worthy follow up to Sons Of The North.

Well worth checking out (especially if you can gut your hands on the exclusive tracks!

Rating - 9/10

American Head Charge - Shoot Ep (2013)

Genre - Industrial / Heavy Metal / Metalcore
Label - Self Released

Tracklisting:

01 - Writhe
02 - Set Yourself On Fire
03 - Sugars Of Someday
04 - Sand
05 - Rock and Roll N_gger


'American Head Charge, the Minneapolis-based metal band, which had its genesis when Cameron Heacock and Chad Hanks crossed paths in a Minnesota rehab facility in 1997, has up to now been known primarily for the radically dysfunctional behavior of the band members.

“We were definitely out of control on our first tour, Ozzfest 2001,” Mr. Banks admits. “It wasn’t enough to just play our music; we also had to fire shotguns on stage and throw pigheads at the crowd. Chalk it up to a desperate bid for attention.” The Head Charge rap sheet - which also includes getting into bloody brawls with their fans, smashing equipment they couldn’t afford to replace, reacquainting themselves with hard drugs and occasionally being locked up by the enraged fuzz - has served to obscure the fact that these free spirits play the shit out of their instruments and make brutally powerful music of uncommon distinction.'

So with the introductions out of the way we have Shoot, which marks the bands return to recorded output after taking a short hiatus of six years. And do we have, well to be honest, hard brutal, melodic (at times I swear!) metal

Kicking off with the atmospheric Writhe, AHC set the scene perfectly for what is to follow, heavy guitar riffs, alternating melodic and intense vocals, and well some of the best brutal music that I have had the pleasure in listening to for a while.

Shoot is too short ( four new songs and a Patti Smith cover), to really judge as to whether AHC are ready to take the world by storm but its a promising indication of what the next full length album is going to sound like. Awesome


If you like your music a little on the heavy side, then this Ep is well worth checking out!

Rating - 8/10